Cracker maintenance and outages coupled with volatile crude prices and availability of alternative feedstock liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) have impacted naphtha fundamentals.

TENDERS: India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for end August loading from Mumbai to Glencore on Aug. 16 at premiums of $11 to $12 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, industry sources said.

This was slightly down versus $12.50 a tonne premium ONGC had fetched recently for a cargo sold out of Mumbai to Marubeni.

India is now starting to sell cargoes for September loading, with IOC having offered a cargo for Sept. 12-14 loading from Chennai through a tender closing on Aug. 21.

GASOLINE: Asia's gasoline profit margin was down to a two-week low of $6.08 a barrel despite pockets of demand.

India's HPCL reissued a tender to buy a total of 38,000 tonnes of gasoline for Sept. 4-6 arrival at Mundra after amending the closing time for offers to be submitted.

Indian refiners such as BPCL, IOC and HPCL had been seeking gasoline recently to plug a supply shortfall caused by a wave of refinery turnarounds as the country prepares to use cleaner fuels from next year.